When soft tissue such as a ligament or a tendon becomes detached from a bone, surgery is usually required to reattach or reconstruct the tissue. Often, a tissue graft is attached to the bone to facilitate regrowth and permanent attachment. Techniques and devices that have been developed generally involve tying the soft tissue with suture to an anchor or a hole provided in the bone tissue. Knotless suture anchors, such as the two piece Arthrex PushLock® anchor, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,329,272, have been developed to facilitate tissue fixation to bone.
It would be desirable to provide a suture construct that may be knotted or knotless and that is formed essentially of a soft material such as suture (or suture-based materials or other soft materials and/or compositions) with the ability to be inserted into a bone socket but also having tying, sliding sutures that are allowed to run/slide freely. Also needed is a soft, suture-based anchor that is knotless and is provided with an independent, soft suture eyelet and a self-cinching mechanism connected to both the independent, soft suture eyelet and to the suture-based anchor.